A COMPILATION of the poetic works of our Prime Minister is being shot as an album. The pleasant surprise is that Keerthana, who made a mark in Mani Ratnam's "Kannathil Muththamittal", appears in it as a young girl selling flags to the PM himself. The scene was filmed at the Prime Minister's residence recently. Parthiban, the proud father, accompanied Keerthana and also presented his book of poems, "Kirukkalgal", to Mr. Vajpayee.

For a cause

Starring Kitu Gidwani, Joy Sengupta and Aly Khan in the main roles, and produced and directed by Govind Nihalani, "Deham" is a story that deals with a contract that takes place in the year 2022. An exclusive preview of "Deham" will be held at Sree, in the Sathyam complex, Chennai, on May 26 at 10 a.m. The proceeds of the show will go to Mukti, a charitable organisation. Govind Nihalani, Kitu Gidwani, Aly Khan, Joy Sengupta and writer Manjula Padmanabhan, will be among those present.

Season of new faces

The "Pallavan" crew...

"Pallavan", a new film starring Manoj K. Bharati, will have quite a few new faces  actress Jayabharathi's nephew Shankar is one and Mukesh is another. Rathi is the heroine of "Pallavan". Shara from Bangalore also makes her debut in the film. Padmamahan is in charge of the story, screenplay, dialogue and direction and it is his first film too. When the film revolves round so many youngsters, it is not difficult to guess that the scene of action is a college and the things that go with it.

Changing tack

Another director has turned to acting. Cheran, director of ``Porkalam'' and ``Pandavar Bhoomi''is acting in a film directed by Thankar Bachchan. The film is ``Sollamarandha Kadhai''. Director-cinematographer Thankar Bachchan says, "My character suits him to a T. Cheran makes others act and so it will be easy to direct him as he would know what I want." Actor turns director

Friendship Productions ``Devan'' is using DTS and Dolby sound for the first time. Actor Arun Pandian who makes his debut as director says, "Vijayakanth, hero of `Devan' has helped me in the production also and I am grateful to him. The film also has Sai Kumar Varma from Malayalam cinema, Ranganathan from Telugu, Usman Khan from Hindi and Asroo Mochan Mohandhi and Bina Singh from Oriya cinema. They have worked in the film for the sake of friendship and each has an important role in the film." It is the 100th film of Arun Pandian as an actor. Other artistes in the film are Karthik, Meena, Kousalya, Vivek, Senthil, Chandrasekar, Vinuchakravarthi and Ajay Ratnam.